1,261 research outputs found
Life cycle sustainability assessment : a tool for exercising due diligence in life cycle management
Starting from the output âThe Future We Wantâ of the Rio+20 conference 2012, the main focus of this chapter is on social responsibility (SR) in the value chain. The historical context of SR is discussed, related to the international standards as are the Guidance on Social Responsibility and the Global Reporting Initiative, linked with the management of organizations and enterprises. It is emphasized that due diligence along the value chain is seen as a requirement for claiming âsocial responsibilityâ. Life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) contributes to the assessment and life cycle management (LCM) to the follow-up of exercising due diligence, all within the context of sustainable development. The over-arching LCSA is a combination of three different life cycle assessment techniques allowing to assess the impacts along the value chain: environmental LCA, social LCA and life cycle costing
Cross-Over between universality classes in a magnetically disordered metallic wire
In this article we present numerical results of conduction in a disordered
quasi-1D wire in the possible presence of magnetic impurities. Our analysis
leads us to the study of universal properties in different conduction regimes
such as the localized and metallic ones. In particular, we analyse the
cross-over between universality classes occurring when the strength of magnetic
disorder is increased. For this purpose, we use a numerical Landauer approach,
and derive the scattering matrix of the wire from electron's Green's function.Comment: Final version, accepted for publication in New Journ. of Physics, 27
pages, 28 figures. Replaces the earlier shorter preprint arXiv:0910.427
Cellular and humoral immune responses and protection against schistosomes induced by a radiation-attenuated vaccine in chimpanzees
The radiation-attenuated Schistosoma mansoni vaccine is highly effective in rodents and primates but has never been tested in humans, primarily for safety reasons. To strengthen its status as a paradigm for a human recombinant antigen vaccine, we have undertaken a small-scale vaccination and challenge experiment in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Immunological, clinical, and parasitological parameters were measured in three animals after multiple vaccinations, together with three controls, during the acute and chronic stages of challenge infection up to chemotherapeutic cure. Vaccination induced a strong in vitro proliferative response and early gamma interferon production, but type 2 cytokines were dominant by the time of challenge. The controls showed little response to challenge infection before the acute stage of the disease, initiated by egg deposition. In contrast, the responses of vaccinated animals were muted throughout the challenge period. Vaccination also induced parasite-specific immunoglobulin M (IgM) and IgG, which reached high levels at the time of challenge, while in control animals levels did not rise markedly before egg deposition. The protective effects of vaccination were manifested as an amelioration of acute disease and overall morbidity, revealed by differences in gamma-glutamyl transferase level, leukocytosis, eosinophilia, and hematocrit. Moreover, vaccinated chimpanzees had a 46% lower level of circulating cathodic antigen and a 38% reduction in fecal egg output, compared to controls, during the chronic phase of infection
From allergy to schistosomes: role of Fc receptors and adhesion molecules in eosinophil effector function
Thirty Years After Michael E. Porter: What Do We Know About Business Exit?
Although a business exit is an important corporate change initiative, the buyerâs side seems to be more appealing to management researchers than the sellerâs because acquisitions imply growth, i.e., success. Yet from an optimistic viewpoint, business exit can effectively create value for the selling company. In this paper we attempt to bring the relevance of the sellerâs side back into our consciousness by asking: What do we know about business exit? We start our exploration with Porter (1976), focusing on literature that investigates the antecedents of, barriers to, and outcomes of business exit. We also include studies from related fields such as finance and economics.1 Through this research we determine three clusters of findings: factors promoting business exit, exit barriers, and exit outcomes. Overall, it is the intention of this paper to highlight the importance of business exit for research and practice. Knowing what we know about business exits and their high financial value we should bear in mind that exit need not mean failure but a new beginning for a corporation
Evidence of Isotopic Fractionation During Vapor Exchange Between the Atmosphere and the Snow Surface in Greenland
Several recent studies from both Greenland and Antarctica have reported significant changes in the water isotopic composition of nearâsurface snow between precipitation events. These changes have been linked to isotopic exchange with atmospheric water vapor and sublimationâinduced fractionation, but the processes are poorly constrained by observations. Understanding and quantifying these processes are crucial to both the interpretation of ice core climate proxies and the formulation of isotopeâenabled general circulation models. Here, we present continuous measurements of the water isotopic composition in surface snow and atmospheric vapor together with nearâsurface atmospheric turbulence and snowâair latent and sensible heat fluxes, obtained at the East Greenland IceâCore Project drilling site in summer 2016. For two 4âdayâlong time periods, significant diurnal variations in atmospheric water isotopologues are observed. A model is developed to explore the impact of this variability on the surface snow isotopic composition. Our model suggests that the snow isotopic composition in the upper subcentimeter of the snow exhibits a diurnal variation with amplitudes in ÎŽ18O and ÎŽD of ~2.5â° and ~13â°, respectively. As comparison, such changes correspond to 10â20% of the magnitude of seasonal changes in interior Greenland snow pack isotopes and of the change across a glacialâinterglacial transition. Importantly, our observation and model results suggest, that sublimationâinduced fractionation needs to be included in simulations of exchanges between the vapor and the snow surface on diurnal timescales during summer cloudâfree conditions in northeast Greenland
The commodification of human reproductive materials.
This essay develops a framework for thinking about the moral basis for the commnodification of human reproductive nmaterials. It argues that selling and buyinlg gametes and genes is morally acceptable although there should not be a market for zygotes, embryos, or genomes. Also a market in gametes and genes shouild be regutlated in order to address concerns about the adverse social consequences of conmmodification. Originally published Journal of Medical Ethics, Vol. 24, No. 6, Dec 199
An optimized multi-proxy, multi-site Antarctic ice and gas orbital chronology (AICC2012): 120-800 ka
An accurate and coherent chronological framework is essential for the interpretation of climatic and environmental records obtained from deep polar ice cores. Until now, one common ice core age scale had been developed based on an inverse dating method (Datice), combining glaciological modelling with absolute and stratigraphic markers between 4 ice cores covering the last 50 ka (thousands of years before present) (Lemieux-Dudon et al., 2010). In this paper, together with the companion paper of Veres et al. (2013), we present an extension of this work back to 800 ka for the NGRIP, TALDICE, EDML, Vostok and EDC ice cores using an improved version of the Datice tool. The AICC2012 (Antarctic Ice Core Chronology 2012) chronology includes numerous new gas and ice stratigraphic links as well as improved evaluation of background and associated variance scenarios. This paper concentrates on the long timescales between 120â800 ka. In this framework, new measurements of ÎŽ18Oatm over Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 11â12 on EDC and a complete ÎŽ18Oatm record of the TALDICE ice cores permit us to derive additional orbital gas age constraints. The coherency of the different orbitally deduced ages (from ÎŽ18Oatm, ÎŽO2/N2 and air content) has been verified before implementation in AICC2012. The new chronology is now independent of other archives and shows only small differences, most of the time within the original uncertainty range calculated by Datice, when compared with the previous ice core reference age scale EDC3, the Dome F chronology, or using a comparison between speleothems and methane. For instance, the largest deviation between AICC2012 and EDC3 (5.4 ka) is obtained around MIS 12. Despite significant modifications of the chronological constraints around MIS 5, now independent of speleothem records in AICC2012, the date of Termination II is very close to the EDC3 one
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